Old Favors
by archard-winchester
Summary: How Anna got her body back.


**Disclaimer:** I used to own supernatural, the boys, the Impala and everything else on the show. But then, the men in white gave me my meds and I had to take them.

**Summary**: How Anna got her body back.

**A/N**: Tag to 4x16 – On the head of a pin.

A flash of light or a flutter or wings, those are the calling signs of an angel. So when the man reclining on the couch savoring a banana-split sundae felt the wind from a rush of wings in a closed room, he could not suppress a momentary flash of panic from rising up within him.

"Oh, it's just you." He said, turning around and finding a brunette standing across the room. "Come on, sit down. Have a candy-bar."

The girl ignored the treat in question which had just materialized beside her.

"I need your help. I need you to-"

"Wait, wait. Hold your horses little sister." The trickster interrupted. "We haven't seen each-other in close to five hundred years and that's how you greet me. Didn't daddy teach you any manners? Where's the love and the hugs?"

"You must be mistaking me with the cupids." Came the stony reply."I'm not here for a family reunion, Gabriel"

"So it seems." The archangel's voice took on a more serious note. "Especially since most of the family wants you dead. But really how have you been. I haven't heard from you or about you for a long time little sister."

"Don't call me that. I was never your little sister. I never was. I was just subordinate."

"You want me to call you by your real name? They're listening you know." Gabriel said in a mock whisper.

"Just call me Anna." The girl replied. "That is the name I want to be known by for the rest of my life."

"How very human of you." Gabriel commented. "So, Anna. What do you need my help for?"

"I need a vessel." Anna replied. "I need you to recreate a human body. My original body. I know it's difficult to create something to hold an angel but for some-one like you -"

"-It's a piece of cake." Gabriel finished. "But I don't get it. Why? The thing you've got on seems just fine."

"Because, it doesn't belong to me. Besides its feels better to be in one I have spent the best years of my life in."

"Never get attached to one of these things."Gabriel said sagely."The upkeep is terrible and they get outmoded so soon. One century it's all big hairy men who are the craze, the next its smooth twinky boys."

"This coming from someone who hasn't changed his vessel for two millennia." Anna replied with a smirk.

Gabriel looked shrewdly at her. He didn't remember his sister being this saucy before.

"I see you have met the Winchesters. They seem to have rubbed off on you."

"Yeah, they do that." Anna replied wistfully. "So are you gonna help me?"

"And what's in it for me?"

"How about the fact what you owe me? How about that when I found out for were masquerading as Loki, I kept it a secret from heaven? How about without my interference, others would've found you and you'd have gotten dragged back home long ago?"

"Okay, you got me." Gabriel conceded. As he proceeded to use his heavenly prowess to create the likeness of Anna's human past, he looked over at his sister. She looked different. He'd have said smug but that wasn't it. It was as if she'd found the secret to happiness or inner peace or true freedom or something. Something that took away the rigidity that was so characteristic of being an angel. Something that no-one could ever give another but everyone must find on their own. Something that Gabriel had been looking for during all his time on earth.

As he saw her step out her borrowed vessel and into her original body, he felt that he was witnessing a true homecoming. One that even their returning to heaven wouldn't compare to.

"You know, I never got why you decided to fall?" Gabriel remarked. "I mean I get trying to get out of that family. Hell, I blew the joint ages ago and I'm surprised more didn't follow the suit. But giving up all that power, your grace, which makes you you? All that just to spend a few measly years as a human of all things? I just don't get it."

"No, you don't" Anna replied spreading her wings. "And I can't explain it to you. It's really something that you have to learn on your own. And I hope someday you will Gabriel."

Gabriel watched as Anna disappeared in a flutter of wings. Someday, he thought, he hoped he would be able to understand what the big deal about being human was.

I actually thought of this back during season 4. Of course, back then I thought of Anna getting it from the Trickster in exchange for protecting him from extermination by angels. With him turning out to be Gabriel, this makes so much more sense. I kept trying to think of a way to make it into something bigger with profound revelations and deep insights. But there wasn't that much room to work with. Review please.


End file.
